QUANTIFIERS

There are three sort of quantifier:

1.Countable .

2.Uncountable

3. Countable or uncontable 

Countable 

Examples:

- Several people are going to go on vacation.

- Both topics are the same book.

- A number of students were at Technological University yesterday.

- I got some magazines that are very interesting.

- Many students need to study more.

- Manuel has a lot of pets in his house.

-  She has  plenty of time to do her homework.

- A large number of children like to watch cartoons.

Uncountable 

Examples:

- Everyday there is too much trafic on roads of San Salvador city.

- Jane used a little bit of oil to fry an egg.

- I drank a little water.

Countable or uncountable 

Examples:
- Jesus would llike to eat plenty of rice.
- Peter has taken plenty of pictures.
- Ernesto drank enough coffee.
- Rodrigo has enough jakects.

PRONOUNS

Most pronouns stand for a noun or a noun phrase. I, me, and related pronouns stand for the speaker or writer. The word or words that a pronouns stands for are its reference or antecedent.

There are different kinds of pronouns and theses are the following:

Personal pronouns

Examples:

* I was playing soccer yesterday.

* She has cleaned her house.

* We are the best friends.

Object pronouns

Examples:

* Can you do me a favor please?

* Midey explained me the homework.

* Manuel helped us to do the power point presentations.

Possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives

Examples:

* This pet is yours.

* That is cindy`s book, but this is mine.

* Their computer is very different to  ours.

* Those are their tables.

Reflexive pronouns

Examples:

* Peter is able to tell a story himself.

* Blanca is old enough to go on the bicycle by herself.

Indefinitive pronouns

Examples:

*Nobody brought her homework.

* In the soap there is something.

Demonstrative pronouns

Examples:

* This is my pencil.

* That book is very expensive.

Relative pronouns

Examples:

* I have met a boy who is very intelligent.

* This is the book that I read yesterday.

* He is the man whose daughters get good grades.

Interrogative pronouns

Examples:

*Who is eating in the kitchen?

* Whose book is this?

* Which of the girls is your sister?

Video about pronouns

 ARTICLES

The Indefinite Article

A or an
A or an comes before a singular countable noun. A comes be a consonant sound, but an comes before a vowel sound.


Examples:
1. I would like to eat an apple.
2. My uncle is an honest man.
3. My uncle has a car in his house.


Use a (n)


1. Before an unidentified singular noun that is one example of its class, but the number one is not being emphasized.

Examples:
- A white cat  is standing in the road.( The emphasis is not on the number).


- One white cat is standing in the road. ( The emphasis is on the number).


2. Before an unidentified singular countable noun that is representative of its class, as in a definition.


Examples:
- A tiger is furous animal.
- A computer is a technological apparatus.


3. Before a predicate noun after to be if no other determiner is used.


Examples:
- Midey is a good friend.
- Michael Jackson was a famous singer.


4. With uncountable nouns to mean a kind of, or  with kind of, or centain.


Example:
- Estela has a responsability that we all appreciate.


 The definite article

The can be used with all nouns. Use the to identify a noun that shows.
1. Reference backward to anoun already mentioned.


Example:
- A lion has been roaring all night and here is the lion now, standing outside the zoo.


2. Reference forward to a identification soon to be made, often by modifiers following the noun.


Examples:
- The thief at the door wants to steal your T.V
- The big parrot that has been repeating all afternoon has finally stopped speaking.


Also, use the  before superlatives and before ordinal numbers.


Examples:
- This is the best friend that I have ever known.
- Humberto is the tallest man that I have known in my class.


3. Context known to both writer and reader.


Examples:
- Here comes the classmate.( one classmate known to the class)
- Turn off the light in the bedroom.( only one light in one bedroom)




4. Identification of a class, especially in a generalization.


Example:
- The child is the hope in the family.

NOUNS

Nouns are words that name things such as persons, animals, places, ideas, and institutions. A noun can be the subject of a clause. Nouns are sometimes called substantives, a term that means any word or group of words that can be used as the subject of a clause: a noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase, a gerund phrase, or an infinitive phrase.


Kind of Nouns

. Countable and uncountable

Countable nouns are sometimes called counts nouns.


Some rules are the following:
- Have singular and plural forms.
- Take singular or plural verbs acording to their use as singular or         plural.
- Can have a, an, or one before them as modifier in the singular.
- Can have many or few before them as modifier in the plural.
- Can have some before them as modifier only in the plural.
- Can have number of before them only in the plural.


Examples:
1. My little niece is very beautiful.
2. The tigers are wild animals.
3. Carlos has a horse, three dogs, and seven birds.
4. Many people do not have a job.


Uncountable nouns are sometimes called noncount or mass noun.
Some rules are the next:
- Have only one form.
- Take a singular verbs. 
- Cannot have a, an, or  one before them as modifier.
- Can have much before them as a modifier.
- Can have some before them as modifier.


Examples:
1. The responsability is very  important that everybody has it.
2. In our country people need peace.
3. My mother cooked some bread.
4. I do not have enough money.


. Proper nouns and common nouns

Proper nouns are the names of particular people, places, or things.They are capitalized.


Examples:
1.  Sam was playing soccer yesterday.
2. Friday is the best day of the week.
3. Maria went to the beach.
4. I was born on July 19th.


.Commom nouns can be classified into abstract nouns and concrete nouns.


Abstract nouns name ideas, emotions, qualities, and processes.
Examples:
1. Everyone wants to get the happiness.
2. The love is very important in a family.
3. The beauty is not enough.
4.The violence does not bring anything good.


Concrete nouns name persons or things that can be known directly through the senses.
Examples.
1. The book was very interesting.
2. The computer is used for different activities.
3. The water was very fresh.
4. I have many pens and pencils.


.Collective nouns
Collective nouns are special nouns that stand for a group of people, animal, birds, or insects.
Examples:
1. The audience had the reason.
2. The chorus of my church sang very well.
3. The police caught the fugitive man.


Spelling of nouns


*Most nouns are regular in spelling the plural. Add -s to the end of the singular form.

   book ------>books           boy -------> boys   

Examples:
- I have many books
- The boys were playing soccer yesterday.


* Add -es to make plurals of nouns that end in -s or in a similar sound (ch, sh, tch, x, and z).

watch -------> watches           fox ---------> foxes

Examples:
- My grandfather has many watches.
- The foxes are very full.


Some nouns are irregular in spelling plurals.


* A final -f or -fe becomes -ves in some nouns.
life ----> lives         knife ------> knives       wife -----> wives


Examples:
- The cat has seven lives.
- My mother has many knives.
- In some countries the men can have many wives.


* Some old English plural forms are still used.

man ------> man    woman -------> women

Examples:
- In my neighborhood there are many men.
- Women are more sensitive  than men.

Compound with- man
Examples:
- The firemen extinguished the fire.
- In our country there are many workmen.


* Some nouns can keep the singular form in a collective plural meaning.
Examples.
- Eduardo hunted a deer.
- In the zoo there is elephant.


* Some Latin and Greek plurals are used.


- Words ending in -a in the singular and -ae in the plural.
amoeba ---------> amoebae         formula ---------> formulae


Examples: 
- Some people have amoebae in their stomach.
- My teacher wrote formulae on the board.
  
- Words ending in -ex or -ix in the singular and -ices in the plural.
index ---------> indices                    apex --------> apices.
 Examples:
- I have to do some indices in my books.
- In some places there are apices.


Uses of Nouns


1. Subject
My granmother just came.


2. Predicate nominative
Rocio is my niece.


3.Direct object
I love my family.

4. Indirect object
Carla gave her mother a present.


5. Object of preposition 
I am waiting for my aunt.


6. Possessive
Cindy´s house is very amazing.
My sister had a waitress´s job.
The books´ pages are very interesting.


Endings of noun
It is important to mention that we can do nouns from others words by adding different endings or suffixes.
Some noun endings are: ant, an, er, ian, ist, or, ness, ence, etc.
Examples:
- The sadness is something that you feel in your heart.
- I have a excellent proffessor.
- In my neighborhood there is a pianist.

SUBJECT- VERB AGREEMENT

When you write a sentence you must make sure that the subject and the verb agree.

Some rules are the following:

a) A word that refers to one person or thing is singular in number. A word that referd to more than one thing is plural in number.

Examples:

Singular  ----------> table, man, this, she, it.

                         

Plural  ------------>  tables, men, theses,they.

b) A verb agrees with its subject in number.

1. Singular subjects take singular verbs.

Examples:

* Lorena enjoys music.

*The child was playing basketball.

2. Plural subjects take plural verbs.
Examples:

* Lorena and Blanca enjoy music.

* The children were playing basketball.

Also, it is important to say that all past tense verbs have the same form in the singular and the plural with the exception of be, which has the special form was.

Examples:

    Singular                                            Plural

I read a book.                             They read a book.    

He took a shower.                      We took a shower.

She was in her house.                 They were in their house.

Intervening Phrases and Clauses.

c) The number of the subject is not changed by a phrase or clause following the subject.

Examples:

* This novel is by Jane Austen.

* This novel of short chapters is by Jane Austen.(novel is still the subject).

* Rosibel is our classmate.

*Rosibel who writes some beautiful poems is our classmate. (Rosibel is, not poems are)

Indefinite Pronouns

The indefinite pronouns like some, any, someone, many, everything can present usage problems. Some of theses words are always singular, some always plural, and some can be either, depending on the meaning of the sentence.

d)The following common words  are singulars: each, either, neither, one, everyone, no one, nobody, anyone, anybody, someone, somebody, everybody, much.

Examples:

* Neither of the pens is (not are) on the desk.

Such a construction is easier to analyze if neither is treated as an adjective or made to stand alone as a pronoun.

* Not one of the blouses looks (not look) dirty.

* Not one blouse looks dirty.

* Everyone on both classrooms has (not have) to be the best.

e) The following common words are plural: several, few, both, many,others.

Examples:

* Both of the cellphones ring in the house.

* Many of our people were immigrating to the U.S.

* Few of the books were interesting .

f) The words some, any,none, all, and most may be either singular or plural, depending of the meaning of the sentence.

When the words some, any, all , and most refer to a singular word, they are singular. When they refer to a plural word,they are plural.

Examples:

* Some of the water was very fresh.(some refers to water, which is singular).

* Some of the tables were broken.(some refers to tables, which is plural).

Compound Subjects

Theses words are usually joined by and or or and may take singular or plural verbs depending on what the connecting word is  and on whether the words joined are singuar or plural.

g) Subjects joined by and take a plural verb.

Examples:

* A flight attendant and pilot work very hard.

* Monday,Tuesday, and Friday are days of the week.

Exception

When a compound subject is consider as a unit, not as two or more distintc things, it takes a singular verb.

Example:

*Apple pie and ice cream (one dish) is a favorite American dessert

h) Singular subjects joined by or or nor take a singular verb.

Examples:

* Neither Kim nor Rocio reads magazines.

* Either Roberto or Carlos wins the prize.

i) When a singular subject and a plural subjet are joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.

Examples:

* Neither the flowers nor the tree grows without water.

Whenever possible, this awkward construction should be avoided.

* The flowers do not grow without water, and neither does the tree.